The present invention relates to live bait containers and, in particular, to a portable aerated bait container for simultaneously maintaining the life of various bait types, such as minnows, crayfish, frogs, leeches, night crawlers, grubs and the like.
Because fishing conditions and the types of fish a fisherman may attempt to catch during the course of a fishing trip can change, fisherman oftentimes carry a variety of live baits, not to mention a selection of articifial lures. However, with each different bait type, the fisherman must take various precautions to ensure the longevity of the bait for his or her entire trip or even possibly for the next trip, should the bait not be used up. With the price of live bait going up each year, the necessity of rebuying bait for each trip becomes especially disadvantageous.
Particular problems encountered by the fisherman in preserving the live bait arise from the inability of shading the bait from the sun, maintaining the bait in a cool environment and/or aerating the water for bait such as minnows and crayfish. A variety of bait containers have previously been developed, but none of which provide the advantages of the present invention.
Some examples of previously known portable bait containers can be seen upon directing attention to various U.S. patents. In particular, upon referring to U.S. Pat. No. 2,639,906, a portable bait container is disclosed similar to the conventional larger storage tank type and wherein water is pumped from the bottom of the bait container through a top mounted conduit and sprayed back into the water. Water is sprayed from the top mounted conduit as a fine spray and thus the spray and the water in the tank became air entrained or oxygenated and whereby the live bait is maintained. A second aerated system incorporating a fan for churning the storage water is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,998,671. Yet another aerator system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,835,575. There, the use of a battery powered air pump is disclosed for forcing air through the storage water. Yet another aerator system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,509,657 and wherein a motorized pump is used to circulate water past an air input tube, thus causing the oxygenation of the water.
While each of the above-mentioned patents generally operates to oxygenate the water, they provide less than ideal results in that they require significant amounts of power to operate the associated pumps, fans, etc. This power consumption becomes a particular problem for the fisherman in that either an onboard power supply is required or the size of the bait container must be increased to provide for a larger storage battery. The present invention, however, overcomes these problems by providing an energy efficient system including control circuitry for periodically aerating the water. Alternatively, the water may be aerated in a manual mode. Still further, the circuitry is adapted to permit the recharging of the self-contained storage battery. Finally, it is to be recognized that a judicious use of thermal insulation and the positioning of the various compartments permits the maintenance of each of the stored baits in a relatively cool, shaded environment.
The above objects, advantages and distinctions of the present invention, among others, not to mention the construction thereof, will become more apparent upon reference to the following description of the presently preferred embodiment relative to the appended drawings. In this regard, it should be recognized, too, that the following description is given by way of reference to the presently preferred embodiment only and which should not be interpreted in any way to be self-limiting.